Did I go for the right board

[Dooms101]

About a week ago I got a pretty dang good deal on eBay for a ASUS M4A78T-E motherboard (about $60 after shipping). I talked to the seller extensively and it's in mint condition. I got the board a few days ago, and the only problem was the NB heatsink had too much TIM on it, so I fixed that with some AS5. He said he used it to get a 740BE to 3.7GHz 24/7 and he wanted to upgrade to an 800 series chipset.

The board has got a 790GX + SB750, CFX, ACC core unlocking, pretty beefy looking power phases, and heatsinks all around. It seems like a great deal to me. Was it worth saving money and getting this board over a newer 890X-SB850 board? And will the 700 series chipset limit my ocing potential any?

 

[Bobnova]

I've worked with that board, and by and large it's great.
CPUz tends to read the core voltage incorrectly, and you need to check in the bios to see the real vcore. It also overvolts .05 from where you set it, just as fair warning.
Other then that, it's great.

I don't think you'll lose much, if anything.

EDIT:
Except for USB3 and SATA3, of course.

 

[Dooms101]

I remember hearing about (when the 890 chipsets came out) that the 800 series chipsets overclock CPU's better than the 700 series. Maybe it was just because thats also when the C3's were coming out too... well as far as I can tell the board is pretty beastly.

If I wanted to upgrade to a 890X/890FX+SB850 (or maybe even 890GX) full ATX board with OCing potential... what should I be considering? I think the GB UD7's are good, and the M4A79 or whatever its called... also the BigBang is good?

 

[QuietIce]

I wouldn't pay for the GB UD7 - but the UD5 is a good deal. The ASUS M4A89TD is the other great OC'ing 890FX board ...

 

[Dooms101]

Well if it seems like the board isn't doing so great (I want to get the magic 4GHz) after this weekend of benching, then I'll probably sell it and buy that ASUS.